Lim

Synopsis

Lim is a game about violence. About the violence of standing out, and even more about the violence of blending in. Players navigate a maze as a multi-colored square, encountering brown and dark blue blocks throughout the series of rooms. The blocks react violently to the player’s presence in the space, shaking erratically and seeking out the player to collide with him/her. As they push the player’s block around, there is often the possibility of being shunted outside of the maze completely, becoming isolated from the experience of the game and being forced to navigate the maze from the outside.

Along with the four arrow keys – which are used for movement – there is one other button available to the player: the blend button. While blending, the player’s block becomes the color of the surrounding blocks, causing them to remain passive as the player passes through. Blending comes at a price though, and can be just as painful and violent as the violence done against the player by the other blocks.

Lim is not without hope though, and suggests that not every block is simply brown or blue. For those who are able to stand the violence of the game and get to the end – from inside or outside the maze – there is the possibility of identification with something that is unlike any of the other blocks that the player had previously encountered. Lim is part of the Games for Change 2013 Festival Babycastles Hall of Fame.